“I did not. Did it ever occur to you that Charlotte might have given it to somebody?”
“And then offed herself because it was in the papers?”
“Stranger things have happened in this town. What’s going on here?”
Stone spoke up again. “We’ve run out of people to interview. You’re the last witness standing.”
“Witness? Witness to what?”
“You tell us,” Dino said.
Fair looked at her wristwatch. “You’ve got one more question. Make it a good one.”
Stone looked at Dino. “Yeah, make it a good one. I’m on tenterhooks.”
“All right,” Dino said. “Who do you think killed the Kendricks?”
Fair sighed. “I think Brix killed them both,” she said, then stood up. “Now get out of here. I’m not talking to either of you anymore.” She looked at Stone. “Unless there’s a drink and dinner involved.”
Stone and Dino shuffled out of her office, and the door slammed behind them.
“That was pretty lame,” Stone said.
“Yeah, and you were such a great help,” Dino replied.
“It was your party. I didn’t want to talk to her in the first place.”
“You mentioned that.”
They walked down the hall and out to the car.
“You still think she’s the March Hare?” Stone asked.
“Who else is there?” Dino asked.
“There must be seven or eight hundred people working in there,” he said, jerking his thumb toward the West Wing. “We didn’t talk to all of them.”
“Are you proposing that we talk to just the women?” Dino asked.
“Suppose the Marchose the Hare is a man? Suppose Brix swung both ways?”
“Of all the people we’ve talked to,” Dino said, starting the car, “did any one of them say a single word to indicate that Brix had the slightest interest in fucking anything but every female who got in his way?”
“Now that you mention it, no. Are we going back to the Hay-Adams?” Stone asked as they drove out the White House gate.
“That’s where my stuff is,” Dino said. “The stuff I’ve got to pack before I can go home.”
“You’re giving up?”
“Give me one really good reason to continue, and I’ll stay.”
Stone was quiet.
“Well?”
“We know the March Hare exists.”
“We know that Charlotte Kirby told us the March Hare exists,” Dino said. “That’s it.”
“You think she was lying?”
“Everything we know about her so far indicates to me that she was crazy enough to make it up.”
Stone shrugged. “Certainly her behavior was, to say the least, eccentric.”
“Eccentric? That’s all you got?” Dino asked. “The woman was a self-operating nymphomaniac. She was a thick slice of fruitcake, chock-full o’ nuts.”
“All right,” Stone said, “I’ll give you all of that. But if you’re right, here’s my theory.”
“I gotta hear this,” Dino said.
“Charlotte killed Brix’s wife, and she was the woman the maid heard with Brix in the Lincoln Bedroom. She killed Milly Hart and Muffy Brandon, too.”
“And herself,” Dino said. “Don’t forget herself.”
“Her motive was jealousy of Brix, and she took herself out of the picture just as he did, and for the same reasons.”
Dino turned into the portico of the Hay-Adams. “I like it,” he said, switching off the engine. “Now, let’s go upstairs and write a report that says just that, then get the hell out of town before somebody else gets offed, making fools of us both.”
“Done,” Stone replied.
As they walked through the door, the phone was ringing. Stone got it. “Hello?”
“It’s Holly. Dinner with the Lees in the family quarters at eight. Shelley Bach and I are commanded, too.”
“What do they want?”
You know what they want, and you’d better have it ready.“
“See you there,” Stone said. He hung up and turned to Dino. “We’re dining with the Lees. Let’s get that report together.”
44
Stone and Dino met Holly and Shelley at White House reception, and they rode up in the elevator together, all of them quiet.
Will and Kate Lee were sitting in the family quarters’ living room when the Secret Service agent ushered the group in. Hands were shaken, drinks were ordered from the butler.
The president spoke first: “From what I hear, you fellows are about done with your work.”
“We are, Mr. President,” Stone replied. He handed the president a brown hotel envelope. “Here’s our report,” he said.
The president dropped the envelope on the coffee table before him and took a sip of his drink. “I’d rather hear it from you.”
Stone looked at Dino. “Go,” Dino said.
“Mr. President, Mrs. Lee,” Stone said. “We have been unable to prove conclusively, with the available evidence, who is responsible for all that has occurred. All we can offer you is an opinion that is supported by what we have learned, and it would never stand up in a court of law.”
The president took another sip of his drink. “Kate and I are prepared to accept your conclusions and get on with our work and our lives. Let’s have it.”
“We believe that the key to what has happened is Brixton Kendrick’s former secretary, Charlotte Kirby,” Stone said. “We believe that she killed Emily Kendrick with an edging stone from the White House garden. She and Mr. Kendrick had been having an affair for some time, and her motive was jealousy. After that, the available evidence supports suicide by Mr. Kendrick.”
“Charlotte Kirby!” Lee said, half to himself. “I hardly knew her, but she seemed such a mild person.”
“She was anything but, Mr. President, from her own testimony, which we’ve outlined in our report.”
“And the other women?”
“All killed by Charlotte Kirby,” Stone said, “who then took her own life.”
Kate Lee spoke up. “So there’s no one left to prosecute or blame?”
“That’s correct,” Stone said. “We believe Ms. Kirby was more than a little mad, and as you will see in our report, she was probably made that way by Brixton Kendrick.”
“I just have one question, Stone,” the president said. “If I had not initiated your investigation, would Milly Hart and Muffy Brandon still be alive?”
“There’s no way we can know that, Mr. President,” Stone replied. “It’s very possible that Charlotte Kirby would have gone on her killing spree even if we hadn’t turned up. You are in no way to blame for her actions. That’s in our report, too.”
“Perhaps I’ll feel better about this after I’ve had time to digest it,” Lee said.
The butler came into the room. “Mr. President, Mrs. Lee, dinner is served.”
They went into the dining room and Kate Lee directed them to their seats. Her husband tasted the wine, and dinner began.
“Stone,” Kate Lee said, “I suppose you and Dino will be returning to New York soon.”
“Tomorrow morning,” Stone said.
“I expect you’ll be glad to get home,” the president said.
“I’ll tell you truthfully, Mr. President, the practice of law has never looked more attractive than it does now.”
“As does New York City police work,” Dino added, “as opposed to the D.C. brand.”
“I can understand that,” Lee said.
“Our visit here has been an education,” Stone said.
“Kate and I are grateful that you took the time to come down ho come dere. We thought your investigation would ease our minds, but I’m afraid it’s just given us more to grieve over.”
“I’m sorry for that, Mr. President.”
“Don’t be. We’ve learned to take things as they come. One of the first things that struck me after I took office was how little I could affect what happens. Presidential power is often an illusion. Kate, on the other hand, sees the effect of her work more immediately than I do. She runs an operation-it succeeds or fails. In order to get that kind of closure, I have to veto a bill.”
The sound of a ringing telephone came from the living room.
“I don’t like it when that phone rings in the evenings,” Lee said. “It’s never good news.”
The butler came into the dining room. “Assistant Director Bach,” he said, “your office is calling. They say it’s urgent.”